(NEW YORK) — The Colorado River, a major freshwater source for over 40 million people in seven southwestern states and parts of northern Mexico, has lost 20% of its water levels over the past 22 years and environmentalists forecast it’s going to get worse.

Farmers and other agriculture workers have been especially hit by the water loss as the fields have dried up, making it harder to cultivate crops and cattle.

“We’ve really been working on some of this for two decades. You know, we’ve kind of seen this coming,” Paul Bruchez, a fifth-generation Colorado rancher, told ABC News.

Now Bruchez, his family, other ranchers and farmers are teaming up with conservationists to adapt to the changing environment and try to repair some of the damage, and they hope that they can encourage others to step up before it’s too late.

Twenty-three years of drought conditions in the West and Southwest have resulted in the lowest water levels at the Hoover and Glen Canyon Dam reservoirs since they were filled. The Colorado River is now at the top of the country’s most endangered rivers list, according to the non-profit American Rivers.

“We’re faced with this, this new reality where we have to learn to live with less water,” Matt Rice, the southwest regional director for American Rivers, told ABC News.

Bruchez said ranchers have been hit hard, because without the freshwater supply, the forage isn’t fertile enough for livestock to feed on. He said his family had to sell half of their livestock due to poor land conditions.

“Mother Nature is key for our business,” he said.

Bruchez, who sits on the Colorado Water Conservation Board, however, isn’t taking the climate crisis lying down and has implemented ecological projects to mitigate the damage and restore the river.

Working with conservationists, Bruchez installed five artificial riffles along a 12-mile stretch of the river. The riffles use cobbles at parts of the river that cascades down and promotes irrigation and invertebrate growth at low water level areas.

“It is this region’s adaptation to climate change,” he said.

Bruchez’s family has also worked on restoring the soil so that it can make use of what little water it does get.

Doug Bruchez has worked with his brother to bring in specialized plants and forages that are better suited to the fields around the river.

“We are looking for drought-resistant plants, we are looking for plants that will use less water,” Doug Bruchez told ABC News.

Paul Bruchez said since his family rebuilt a meadow using this drought-resistant flora, the livestock has been liking their feeds “significantly better.”

“The nutrition value of the feed is higher, and we use them as a tool to assist us in managing the soil,” he said.

Rice said these Colorado River restoration projects have “quantifiably improved the habitat and the environmental health of the river.”

“We’re actually implementing them kind of in real-time right now. If we weren’t doing that, not only would it have a tremendous impact on the communities upstream of here, the agricultural communities, it [would have] a tremendous impact on the environment,” Rice said.

Bruchez said he is looking to expand these programs throughout the Colorado River basin and improve the water and soil conditions throughout the southwest.

Bruchez said of his efforts and outreach that “it is both an honor and terrifying,” but in the end he hopes that they can make a difference.

“These are tough conversations when people realize that survival will require adaptation,” he said. “Without adaptation, we wouldn’t be here for our generation [and] the generation after us.”

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(NEW YORK) — Kentucky state Sen. Karen Berg went viral last month for an impassioned speech in the Senate chambers against the state’s new law that bans abortions after 15 weeks, calling the legislation a “medical sham.”

Now that the bill is the law of the land, the Democratic senator told ABC News Live on April 15 that she will continue to raise her voice as the controversial legislation faces lawsuits.

“I don’t really understand how your morals could possibly think that is the appropriate thing to do,” she told ABC News, regarding the new abortion law.

The state bill went into effect on April 13 after the GOP-led legislature overturned Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear’s veto. Under the new rules, any physician who performs an abortion after 15 weeks would lose their license for at least six months.

The bill allows for exceptions if there is a medical emergency in which continuing the pregnancy would result in “serious risk of the substantial and irreversible impairment of a major bodily function” or “death of the pregnant woman.” There are no exceptions for rape or incest.

The bill’s proponents have argued that abortion is morally wrong, including Kentucky’s Republican attorney general, Daniel Cameron, who said the bill was meant “to protect life and promote the health and safety of women.”

During the March 10 vote, Berg scolded the legislators who signed onto the bill for ignoring the personal choices of a pregnant woman.

“What you are doing is…putting your knee, putting a gun to women’s heads. You’re killing them,” she said.

Berg told ABC News that the speech wasn’t prepared and came about from her frustrations on the number of state legislatures in the country that choose “to ignore what is safe for women, to ignore what women want, and sometimes need for their own safety, and instead insert their own moral values that have nothing to do with health care.”

“That, honestly, is such an overreach of what government is supposed to be doing,” Berg said.

She recalled that her father, a surgeon, taught her how dangerous backstreet abortions can be, and was baffled as to why lawmakers would reduce access to safe options.

“I have actually seen what it looks like inside of a woman who is dying from sepsis, from a botched illegal abortion,” Berg said.

The bill also changed the regulations for prescription drugs used for medication abortions, which is a nonsurgical procedure typically used up to 10 weeks into a pregnancy.

In order for a physician to provide the medication, they must have hospital admitting privileges in “geographical proximity” to where the abortions are being performed, give the patient an in-person examination 24 hours before the medication abortion and cannot mail the drugs.
MORE: Oklahoma passes bill that would make it a felony to perform abortions

Berg said all of the clinics that provide medication abortion have had to shut down because they cannot comply with the new regulations.

“We do not have the system,” she said.

Two federal lawsuits were filed April 14 by abortion advocates, including Planned Parenthood, arguing that it is “impossible to comply” with the new regulations and the new law resulted in “unconstitutional ban on abortion in Kentucky.” Cameron said in a statement he would defend the law, reiterating that the “General Assembly passed HB 3 to protect life and promote the health and safety of women.”

Berg said she is unsure how the lawsuit will play out, especially since the Supreme Court is slated to make a decision on a case that challenges a similar 15-week abortion ban in Mississippi.

“How is this going to play out? Well, a lot of it’s going to depend on the Supreme Court decision. There is a lot, a lot riding on that decision,” she said.

ABC News’ Mary Kekatos contributed to this report.

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(ORLANDO) — Operator error is suspected as the primary cause in the death of a 14-year-old boy who slipped out of his seat on a drop-tower ride at a Florida amusement park and plunged to the pavement, officials said Monday.

Nicole “Nikki’ Fried, the Florida commissioner of agriculture and consumer services, announced the findings of a forensic engineer’s field investigation report on the March 24 incident that killed Tyre Sampson of St. Louis, Missouri, at Orlando’s ICON Park.

Fried said the report showed the operator of the park’s FreeFall ride, the world’s tallest free-standing drop tower at a height of 430 feet, “made manual adjustments to the ride resulting in it being unsafe.”

The report by Quest Engineering & Failure Analysis, Inc., said manual manipulations were made to the seat Sampson was sitting in to allow the harness restraint opening to be loosened, apparently to accommodate the more than 300-pound teenager. Fried said the harness restraint opening was “almost double that of a normal restraint opening range.”

Fried said the adjustment by the individual operator, who was not identified in the report, enabled the FreeFall’s sensor lights to illuminate, “improperly satisfying” the ride’s electronic safety mechanisms and enabling the ride to operate “even though Mr. Sampson was not properly secured in his seat.”

“This report answers the question of what mechanically took place as our investigation now enters into the next phase of how and why it occurred as we look toward potential penalties along with any changes of rules and regulations needed to help prevent future tragedies,” Fried said at a news conference.

The report showed the average restraint opening for other seats on the ride was 3.33 inches, which is considered “normal.” Sampson’s seat was adjusted before the ride started to an opening of 7.19 inches, the report found.

“During slowing of the ride, Tyre Sampson slipped through the gap between the seat and harness” and fell to his death, according to the report.

The forensic engineer who wrote the report said his conclusions were partly based an examination of the ride, video of the incident and a reenactment using two individuals, one 6-foot-3, the other 6-foot-5, and both weighing between 200 and 300 pounds.

“During our investigation, two individuals were positioned in a seat with an opening ranging from 6 to 10 inches. Both individuals were able to slip through the restraint opening without assistance,” according to the report.

The forensic engineer’s investigation concluded that the ride “did not experience a mechanical or electrical failure.”

The report also found there “are many other potential contributions to the cause of the accident,” but did not elaborate.

Fried did not take questions from reporters and said she is declining further comment until the investigation is completed.

She said the FreeFall ride will remain closed indefinitely.

Fried said she spoke to Sampson’s parents prior to the news conference to inform them of the forensic engineer’s report.

State Rep. Geraldine Thompson, D-Orlando, said at the news conference that the manufacturer’s guidelines for the FreeFall specifically say the maximum weight of the rider is 250 pounds.

“Tyre Sampson weighed in excess of 300 pounds. So, yes this is outside of the manufacturer’s guidelines,” Thompson said.

Thompson said she was “very disturbed” by the report. She said she has been in contact with the Sampson family’s attorney, Ben Crump.

“As you might imagine, the family is in shock,” Thompson said. “You send your 14-year-old son away for spring break and he does not return alive. So, they’re in shock.”

ICON Park said in a statement to ABC News on Monday that it was “deeply troubled” by the findings of the report.

“We are deeply troubled that the preliminary findings of the State’s investigation indicate a sensor on the Orlando FreeFall attraction, which is owned and operated by the SlingShot Group, had been mis-adjusted after the sensor was originally secured in place,” the statement said. “ICON Park is committed to providing a safe, fun experience for families. We will continue to support the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services with their ongoing investigation.”

SlingShot Group, the ride’s operator, did not immediately respond to ABC News’ request for comment on Monday.

The company said in a statement following Sampson’s death that it was “heartbroken” about the incident and was cooperating with authorities and ride officials in the investigation.

ABC News’ Victoria Arancio contributed to this report.

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(NEW YORK) — In the aftermath of a mass shooting at an Airbnb rental house that left two 17-year-old boys dead and eight people wounded, neighbor Leonard Verdetto described what he said was “rapid fire” followed by panicked party-goers flooding out of the residence.

The episode erupted early Sunday morning across the street from Verdetto’s Pittsburgh home and was one of three mass shootings in the United States over the Easter weekend, including two in South Carolina at a mall and a restaurant.

The Gun Violence Archive, a website that tracks shootings across the nation, has tallied 139 mass shootings in the country in the first 107 days of 2022.

“When we heard the bang, bang, bang, bang, bang, we looked out the window and people were running out the door and screaming, yelling, crying,” Verdetto told ABC affiliated station WTAE in Pittsburgh of the shooting that broke at the Airbnb house being used for a party in his East Allegheny neighborhood on the city’s North Side.

When Verdetto’s wife went to look out a window to see what the commotion was, he said he yelled, “Get away from the window!”

“I could see the flashing of the shots coming out the windows because we look across at the windows,” Verdetto said. “I said, ‘Holy mackerel, that’s really rapid fire.’ I said, ‘Man, with all that shooting there’s got to be a lot of dead people over there. It was lucky it was only two.”

More than 90 shots were fired, including 50 inside the home, where the Pittsburgh Police Department said more than 200 people were attending a party. Pittsburgh Police Chief Scott Schubert said at a news conference Sunday that the gunfire started after an “altercation” and confirmed that multiple shooters engaged in a gunfight.

Besides the 10 people shot, including the two slain teenagers, another five party-goers suffered broken bones and cuts attempting to escape the gunfire, some by jumping from windows, Schubert said.

The Allegheny County Medical Examiner’s Office identified the deceased as Mathew Steffy-Ross and Jaiden Brown, both 17. No arrests have been made and investigators were working Monday to identify suspects.

“They all come tearing out and they were falling over, crying. There were a lot of young girls,” Verdetto said. He added that prior to the shooting, he noticed mostly young people lined up outside the house.

“There was a long line getting into the building. I said, ‘Wow, where are all them people going?'” Verdetto said. “And then I’d come back again and come back again and the line was still going and going. I said, ‘I don’t know how they get all them people in there.’ And I mean, it was a lot of people in there.”

The owner of the Airbnb rental has not been identified.

The shooting marked the third time in nine days that gunfire erupted during parties being held at Airbnb rentals, including one near Sacramento, California, which left a teen dead, and another that rocked a suburban Houston residential neighborhood.

Airbnb said a statement to ABC News that the person who booked the Pittsburgh house has been issued a lifetime ban from Airbnb. The company confirmed that an “unauthorized party” was thrown without the knowledge or consent of the house host, who specifically stated in the listing page that no parties were allowed and that any evidence of a party would result in a $500 fee.

Airbnb said on Monday it is taking legal action against the person who booked the Pittsburgh rental.

“Airbnb strictly bans parties, and we condemn the behavior that is alleged to have prompted this criminal gun violence and the tragic loss of life. Yesterday we confirmed the booking guest has been issued a lifetime ban from Airbnb, and today we can confirm that we plan to pursue affirmative legal action against this individual,” Airbnb said in a new statement on Monday, adding that the company is cooperating with the Pittsburgh Police Department’s investigation.

Following the shooting, Verdetto said his grandson pointed out numerous vehicles in the neighborhood with shattered windows, and walls of nearby homes and businesses pockmarked with bullet holes.

“I’m just glad I’m here,” Verdetto said.

ABC News’ Victoria Arancio contributed to this report.

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